I'm at the point where I can't understand some of the secrecy surrounding RM8 as in far too many ways they will only be catching up with the competition and not breaking a lot of new ground imo.

I completely understand the secrecy. RootsMagic is competing against companies like MyHeritage and their new acquisition Legacy. It would be much better for RM to delay the release until after Legacy 10, but that's also not such a good idea at the same time. I suppose it depends on how much MyHeritage supports Legacy. Their previous efforts are pretty abysmal on the desktop (Family Tree Builder).

Heh... I guessed Delphi just from the look of the UI. I have no idea why. Thanks!

If RM8 is a complete rewrite of RM, I wonder if they will still be using Delphi. That seems to have fallen out of favor so I'm sure the libraries available aren't that great. Given that RM8 may run natively on MacOS I would have to assume they also switched from Delphi. Looks like Embarcadero owns the Delphi stuff now. Their web page doesn't pull up anymore. :-(

I came here for this. I find it unusual that I can't easily select a lot of records at once by checking one item in a link, scrolling down, holding ALT or CONTROL and clicking on another item and it selecting everything between the previously selected item and the one I scrolled down to and selected.

Another possibly easily solution (or additional method) would be to be able to check a box with the space bar and then having RM7 automatically select the next record. A subsequent space would select that next item, and so on. Holding down the space bar briefly would also select a series in a short time.

Either would work fine for my needs. This is something I think about a lot in the Name and Place Cleaner tool area. :-)

I think at this point, using a few different systems is working well for me. I mainly use RM7, Legacy 9, and to a lesser extent FTM2017. In the end, I typically generate the GEDCOM files and create a new RM7 database, clean it up a little, and then drag and drop where I need to combine that information. Is anyone doing anything similar? There are a few things that Legacy 9 and FTM2017 do that would take me forever in RM7 due to the "clickiness" of RM - having to click on each and every item.

Just thought of another wish list I bet has already been wished for... :-)

Thanks KFN. That makes a lot of sense. Given your point, it might be best to use modern acceptable names so that it can be geolocated and that place will remain consistent, even though county checker in RM will complain about it from time to time. Or, I suppose when it complains, I can let it fix the place according to its records and then at least have a place that will, over time, match all of the others from that time period. Anything is better than the strange spellings and nonsensical information that I have found online. FamilySearch has a ton of place names that are entirely inappropriate like "Was the brother of Jim" etc.

Another option might be to have a configurable on/off switch for automatic saving or saving every X duration of time. I think the ability to have an undo (and frequency of needing to have it) would be more common than a loss of power.

As Jerry mentioned, transactional logging that isn't flushed every change would also work, and I don't think that's very uncommon in SQL. Consider it like a buffer. Yes, if the power failed or the system crashed, you might lose just the most recent changes, but they could be read from the transaction log and recovered quite easily. Each change is just a series of SQL queries anyway.

Yes, but there are a whole lot of "Isle of ", "City of ", etc. to go through. With regular expressions, searching for ^of would find only those places starting with "of", but that's just one example. This could be used in a whole lot of ways. For example, you could easily correct a lot of errors quickly with the correction expression in REGEX that would only return exactly what matches and often where you want it matched.

While they all have nice features (download FS Tree in L9 and AQ15 are very nice), but nothing matches RootsMagic. I use the others to collect information and sort some things, but I only use RootsMagic to keep my master tree. It's the only one I trust at all. It's the only one that runs through massive operations very quickly. It is fantastic.

Definitely, FamilySearch is an incredible source so I use that the most especially for images of records. However, there are things on Ancestry, MyHeritage, Geni, WikiTree, etc that it is difficult or impossible to get anywhere else. Mostly that photos of people that you may have never seen. I have subscriptions to all of them now.

By the way, a lot of libraries will let you use your card number to login to Ancestry and other sites, but the access is somewhat limited. If you are on a budget, definitely check with your local library. Those resources are free and often great. For example, we have full access to Lynda.com here, and we don't have to go to the library to do that.

I think it would be great to have a checkbox on the Search and Replace box to allow for REGEX (Regular Expressions) searches. I will link to more information about REGEX at the bottom.

Here's a perfect example of how it could make work so much easier. I have a WHOLE lot of places that start "Of England" or "of Lancashire, Eng." and all that. We've all seen those stuck in places. Well, if I could search for the string "^of " and replace it with nothing then all of the places that START with "of" and that ONLY start that way would be removed in one go. That's just a simple example but would save a ton of time.

So I have a lot of places with details like Hopewell Cemetery. I have moved that out into Place details which will leave me with a standardized place of say Gilmer, Upshur, Texas, United States. Do you normally merge those Places (ex Gilmer) together or do you not merge those because it has a Place Detail attached to it? Are there any pros and cons I should be considering?

I have a tree with about 80,000 people and I have a LOT of places that I need to correct. I have no idea why people think Place is a blank to put all kinds of miscellaneous information, but that's another topic.

So I have many people who date back before 1000AD and I'm curious how you are using GeoCode and Standard Place Names. On the one hand, it will easily correct the spelling and get me a better GeoCode location. On the other hand, the United Kingdom didn't exist until fairly recently? How do you guys do that on a normal basis?

I agree with leaving these as Unknown. I think it could get very confusing if you start to include some but not others. Here's a list of the more common ones today (below). And the other issue is that many of these people (lots of teens) tend to change their minds over time which may or may not make it to your tree (probably wouldn't). Where does it end? My opinion is that it ends with Male, Female, and Unknown. I don't mean to offend anyone at all, but it seems like this would become extremely difficult to maintain and somewhat political.

Here's the list:

Heterosexual- The attraction to a gender different from their own (commonly used to describe someone who is gender binary [female or male] attracted to the other binary gender).

Homosexual- The attraction to a gender the same as their own (commonly used to describe someone who is gender binary [female or male] attracted to the same binary gender). Sometimess referred to as gay.

Lesbian- Women who are attracted only to other women

Bisexual- When you are attracted to two or more genders. This term is generally used to describe being attracted to men and women, but can apply to being attracted to any two or more genders. Note that you do not have to be equally attracted to each gender.

Pansexual- When you are attracted to all genders and/or do not concern gender when you are attracted towards someone

Bicurious- People who are open to experiment with genders that are not only their own, but do not know if they are open to forming any sort of relationship with multiple genders.

Polysexual- When you are attracted to many genders

Monosexual- Being attracted to only one gender

Allosexual- When you are not asexual (attracted to at least one gender)

Androsexual- Being attracted to masculine gender presentation

Gynosexual- Being attracted to feminine gender presentation

Questioning- People who are debating their own sexuality/gender

Asexual- Not experiencing sexual attraction (note that you can also be aromantic and you do not necessarily have to be asexual and aromantic at the same time). Sometimes the term, ace, is used to describe asexuals.

Demisexual- When you only experience sexual attraction after forming a strong emotional bond first or a romantic bond

Grey Asexual- When you only experience attraction rarely, on a very low scale, or only under certain circumstances

Perioriented- When your sexual and romantic orientation targets the same gender (for example being heteromantic and heterosexual or being biromantic and bisexual)

Varioriented- When your sexual and romantic orientations do not target the same set of genders (for example being heteromantic and bisexual or being homoromantic and pansexual)

Heteronormative- The belief that hetersexuality is the norm and that sex, gender, sexuality, and gender roles all align

Erasure- Ignoring the existance of genders and sexualities in the middle of the spectrum

Cishet- Someone who is both cisgendered and heterosexual. This is sometimes used as a slur.

Polyamorous- An umbrella term referring to people who have or are open to have consensually have relationships with multiple people at the same time

Monoamorous- People who have or or open to have relationships with only one other person at a time. The term, monogamous, is also sometimes used.

Queer- A reclaimed slur for anybody in the LGBT+ community or who do not identify as cisgender and/or hetersexual/heteromantic

Ally- A supporter of the LGBT+ community that does not identify as LGBT+

It doesn't end there. You also have to include these statuses if you go down this road. If you don't, you'll be potentially oppressing someone.

Male to Female (MtF)- When somebody that is assigned as a male at birth identifies as a female

Female to Male (FtM)- When somebody that is assigned as a female at birth identifies as a male

Binary- The genders at each end of the gender spectrum (male and female)

Non-Binary- An umbrella term for genders that fall somewhere in the middle of the gender spectrum and are neither strictly male or female. This can be used as a gender identification without further explanation. Sometimes the term, genderqueer, is used.

Genderfluid- Moving between genders or having a fluctuating gender identity

Agender- Not identifying with any gender. Sometimes referred to as being genderless or gendervoid

Bigender- Identifying as two genders, commonly (but not exclusively) male and female. Sometimes you feel like both genders at the same time and sometimes you fluctuate.

Polygender- When you identify with multiple genders at once. Sometimes referred to as multigender.

Gender Apathetic- When you really do not identify nor care about any particular gender. You are fine passing off as whatever and you really do not have an opinion towards your own gender.

Androgyne- This term overlaps a lot between gender identification and presentation. It can be used to describe others and as an identification. This term is used to describe people who are neither male nor female or are both male and female. Basically anyone who does not fit into a binary gender category.

Intergender- Somebody who's gender is somewhere between male and female

Demigender- When you feel as if you are one part a defined gender and one or more parts an undefined gender. Terms can include demigirl, demiboy, demiagender, ect.

Greygender- Somebody with a weak gender identification of themselves

Aporagender- Somebody with a strong gender identification of themselves that is non-binary

Maverique- A non-binary gender that exists outside of the orthodox social bounds of gender

Novigender- A gender that is super complex and impossible to describe in a single term

Designated gender- A gender assigned at birth based on an individuals sex and/or what gender society percieves a person to be

AFAB- Assigned Female At Birth

AMAB- Assigned Male At Birth

Gender roles- Certain behaviors an activities expected/considered acceptable of people in a particular society based upon their designated gender

Gender Presentation- The gender you present yourself to others. This is sometimes referred to as gender expression

Transitioning- The process of using medical means to change your sex

Intersex- A biological difference in sex that is when people are born with genitals, gonads, and/or chromosomes that do not match up exactly with male or female. Intersex individuals can have any romantic/sexual orientation and can have any gender identification. Intersex individuals are about as common as redheads.

Dyadic- Someone who is not intersex and when their gentinals, gonads, and chromosomes can all match into either a male or female category

Trans Woman- Someone who is assigned as a male at birth, but identifies as a woman

Trans Man- Someone who is assigned as a female at birth, but identifies as a man

Trans Feminine- Someone who identifies as feminine, but identifies as neither a man nor a woman. They must also be assigned male at birth.

Trans Masculine- Someone who identifies as masculine, but identifies as neither a man nor a woman. They must also be assigned female at birth.

Social Dysphoria- Discomfort experienced when acting in ways socially different than your gender or being addressed in ways different to your gender

Body Dysphoria- Discomfort experienced because of the difference between gender and your sex, role, or gender expression

Butch- A term used to describe someone who's gender expression is more masculine than feminine. This is commonly used in describing women or lesbians.

Femme (Fem)- A term used to describe someone who's gender expression is more feminine than masculine. This is commonly used in describing women or lesbians.

Binarism- Putting gender strictly into two categories (male and female) and refusing to acknowledge genders outside of male and female.

Maybe you don't, but I would sure take advantage of it and making this available is drop dead EASY. It's maybe a five-minute operation for RM to adjust the forum and then those who would like to take advantage of it could while it wouldn't change anything at all for the regular users of the forums. It wouldn't eliminate the mobile browsing of the forums or anything else. It's just adding an ability and nothing more. And as far as I know, it's free to use and set up.

This is truly a fantastic idea. Family Historian 6 and Gramps both use this method and it definitely adds to those systems. In some ways, it enables those systems to approach some of the "magic" in RootsMagic. And you already have quite a few people who are active in developing SQL and other tools to do these things.

I believe FH6 and Gramps add-ins are LUA based - I think that's FH6. Gramps is open source so I'm sure anything goes there. I wish the terrible Gramps interface would go through. Heh. :-)